Of Shaved Ice Treats, Coins, and Fireworks
by SuperheroGirlX
Summary: Shaved Ice Treats, pitiful payments, love, hate, explosions, fuzzies, festivals, and fireworks! There's more adventure in Kooper's life than he thinks.
1. Friday

Disclaimer: Paper Mario owns all, none of it is mine.

For all the Kooper/Bombette shippers out there (if there are any), here is a story just for you. REPOSTED WITH SCENE DIVIDERS!

**Of Shaved Ice Treats, Coins, and Fireworks**

Friday

Kooper sighed and held his _one _coin up to the light. Koopa Koot had cornered him coming out of his house - it was never good to live next door to the town mooch - and asked him in that pathetically old voice that makes it impossible to say no, to run all the way to Shiver City to get him a shaved ice treat. Kooper left his house in the hands of his most trusted friend, a pink bob-omb named Bombette, and set out on a week-long journey. First, he got lost in the stupid tunnels and then, when he finally made it to the northern city of snow, the tunnel iced over and he was stuck there.

And for all his trouble, Kooper walked away with only _one_ coin.

This was not what he had planned for himself. After becoming a hero as a member of Mario's party - yes _the_ Mario himself - Kooper had planned to travel the world with his neighbor and idol, Kolorado. But just as the two koopas were setting out on their first adventure together, Kolorado was called home by his wife and was now unable to leave the house for any length of time without his wife descending on him with a firey anger that rivaled Kooper's fire shell. Kooper was not a great explorer. The only adventure he got now came in the form of some mundane task crazy old Koopa Koot forced him into doing.

The front door of Kooper's house blew off its hinges and landed across the street. A pair of green bob-ombs scurried out after it, dragging a blue one out after them.

"Bombette, my darling! Your bomb-bursting displays of fiery passion ignite my fuse!"

"Shut up, Bruce!" the blue bob-omb's friends growled, trying to get him out of Bombette's range before she could light her fuse again.

"Fiery passion!" Bombette shouted from the doorway. "Fiery _anger_!" she corrected. "Annoyance, loathing, disgust! Not passion!"

"You're so beautiful when you're glowing like that," Bruce sighed whistfully.

"Gah!" Bombette cried and blew up again. "Get him away from me!"

The two green bob-ombs finally managed to drag Bruce out of Bombette's sight and she turned slowly to survey the damage she'd caused this time. Kooper's front door was across the street, sticking in the grass at an impossible angle. The east side of his house was charred and some flames still licked the roof. The inside was completely trashed and covered in ash. She turned her gaze back outside and found Kooper staring at her from his spot in front of Koopa Koot's house.

"Sorry," she said sheepishly. He just stared, mouth agape. "Kooper?" she asked uncertainly.

"You...You blew up my house."

He didn't sound angry and Bombette wasn't sure if that was a good sign or not. "I'm sorry."

"You blew it up _again_."

His voice was still toneless and Bombette was growing impatient. "If you're mad, just be mad. And you know, you knew this was a risk when you said I could live here. You know Bruce is the most annoying bob-omb to ever walk the Mushroom Kingdom and you know he won't stop telling me he's in love with me! If you wanted to keep your house in one piece, you should have kicked me out!"

Kooper started laughing. He flipped on his back, howling in gasp-for-breath, gut-busting laughter. "You - blew - up - my - house," he choked out. Koopa Koot stuck his head out of his window to shake his head and "the younger generation." Kolorado peeked out for a second before his wife dragged him back inside.

"Kooper?" Bombette said, taking a tentative step toward him. "Are you alright?"

"I've fallen and I can't get up!" he giggled. He struggled to fight down the chuckles long enough to flip himself upright again, but it was no use.

"Kooper, have you gone insane?" Bombette helped him to his feet and steered him into his demolished house.

"I went all the way to Shiver City for an _ice treat_ for a _coin_ and my house got blown up for the second time in a month!" He was still laughing, which confused Bombette to no end. If her day had been half that bad, she would be explosively angry, not hysterically giggly. "I'm stuck in Koopa Village babysitting old men and bob-ombs -"

"'Babysitting bob-ombs?'" Bombette repeated angrily. "I didn't realize I needed _'babysitting_!'"

"No, not you!" Kooper tried to reason with her, but his short-tempered friend was beyond reason.

"I've had just about enough of you Kooper! You're never any help to me! You never help me get rid of Bruce. Whenever he comes over all you do is laugh at me!"

"I don't -"

"It's not funny that he's so obsessed with me! It's annoying! You could at least _try _to help me knock some sense into him!"

"But-"

"I'm going to stay at the castle this weekend!"

Kooper surveyed the charred remains of his house and thought he'd like to stay somewhere else that weekend too. He didn't say it out loud though, for fear of setting Bombette off again and losing his house all together. Kooper trudged down to the Toad House and got himself a room. Outside, Koover and a few bob-ombs were putting up banners and decorations to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Star Spirits' return to Star Haven this Sunday. Kooper looked down at the one coin in his hand, that he had somehow managed to hang onto.

"One more coin..." he told himself, and tucked that day's earnings in his shell with his six other coins.

-PM-

"Who does Kooper think he is?" Bombette fumed.

She was at Koopa Bros. Fortress, renamed Bob-omb Castle, because the Koopa Bros. no longer lived there. All that was left of their reign were a few koopa troopas that had been rounded up and locked in the jail cell that had once held Bombette.

"I should blow him up! He's so dense sometimes! And crazy! Did I tell you about how he just started _laughing_ at stuff that wasn't funny?" Bombette's prisoners nodded and watched her intently. They were hopping she was get really angry and blow the bars apart for them to escape. "I mean, why would he think I need _babysitting_? So I blew up his house a few times, so what? _Bruce _is the one that needs babysitting! Someone needs to keep that bob-omb far away from me. ...What is Kooper thinking!"

"Maybe you should just tell him how you feel," one of the koopa troopa's suggested.

"Nobody asked you!"

"I thought you just..." The poor, confused koopa troopa looked to his friends for help, but they only shook their heads. It was no use arguing with Bombette.

"Go to sleep," Bombette barked. She leaned up against the opposite wall and glared at the prisoners until they curled up in their shells and fell asleep. "Kooper, you idiot," she mumbled before she drifted off to sleep as well.


	2. Saturday

Disclaimer: Paper Mario owns all, none of it is mine

REPOSTED WITH SCENE DIVIDERS!

Saturday

Kooper awoke bright and early the next morning and hiked to the other end of town to knock on Koopa Koot's door.

"Oh, what luck! You came at the perfect time, young man! Could you do me a favor?"

"That's what I came for," Kooper said as cheerfully as possible, hoping it was something easy.

"Oh! How very kind of you! I guess the younger generation isn't so bad after all. Well then, young fella! I don't usually ask for favors, but...The Cheif Yoshi has an artifact of mine. Would you mind running to Lavalava Island to get it for me?"

Kooper almost said no, but the weight of seven coins in his shell made him smile and nod and race out of there as fast as he could. Through the tunnels to Toad Town and straight to Toad Town Port, he skidded to a stop on the dock. The enormous whale that had taken up residence in the port opened his big eyes.

"H'lo Kooper," he said sleepily.

"Hi, I need to get to Lavalava Island as fast as possible."

"Ok, ok, climb on." Kooper scrambled onto the whale's huge back. "Next stop: Lavalava Island!"

-PM-

Bombette hid in the uppermost room in the castle, looking out at the great view of Pleasant Path below. It would be a while before Bruce would climb all those stairs looking for her, so she was safe to just think. "Safe" might not be the right word for it though, because the more she thought, the worse she felt. She blew up at Kooper - not literally - for almost no reason yesterday. He had every reason to be upset with her, but he hadn't been, and one little slip of the tongue and she attacked him.

"Some friend I am," Bombette muttered. "Of course he wasn't talking about babysitting _me_. Why do I always get so mad at him when Bruce comes over? I should be mad a Bruce, not Kooper. Kooper never does anything..."

_But that's the problem, isn't it?_ a voice in her head said. _Kooper never does anything. He doesn't get angry with Bruce, he doesn't stop him from saying all those annoying things, he doesn't get jealous -_

"Oh no!" Bombette cried when she realized what she'd just thought. "I'm not...I don't..."

_Oh yes you do_.

"Crap."

-PM-

"Crap," Kooper said. The Fearsome Five had just cheerfully informed him that the Chief was visiting Raphael Raven in the jungle today.

"Yep, if you wanna find the Chief, you've gotta go in the jungle," the little yellow yoshi said.

"We'd go with you," the red one said, "but Sushie would tidal wave us, so we'd better not."

"Yeah, I wish she hadn't learned _that _move," the blue yoshi said. "It hurts."

"Thanks guys," Kooper said and stepped warily into the jungle.

Jade Jungle was full of unseen dangers. Bushes and plants could come to life at any moment. Jungle Fuzzies dropped on you from the trees if you weren't careful. Spear Guys tried to impale you. Putrid Piranha popped out of the ground and bit you - getting eaten by a flower is not fun. Kooper enlisted Sushie's daughter, Sashimie's help in swimming to the old Raven Shrine in the center of the jungle and let her go back to caring for her newborn son.

"Great," he muttered, "now which branch was it that I'm supposed to pull?" He stared at each hanging branch intently, but no matter how long he thought, he just couldn't remember which one it was. "Great," he muttered again.

He finally just guessed, and guessed wrong. Three jungle fuzzies dropped on him and he just barely got out of the way before they made the first strike. Trying to conserve his energy, Kooper decided to attack them one at a time with his regular old shell toss. But every time he killed one, one of the remaining ones would spin around and create a new fuzzy. This happened about five times before Kooper just got fed up.

"I don't have time for this." He used his flame shell followed quickly by his power shell to get rid of all the fuzzies. "So it's not _that_ branch." He pulled the one next to it and the bushes slid aside. Kooper sighed in relief and passed through. "Now if I remember right, there's a few Putrid Pirhanas up here."

Sure enough, they were there, accompanied by a Magikoopa. A couple flame shells took care of them, but by then Kooper was low on HP and FP. He stumbled on and lifted his head to look up at the enormous tree growing out of the ground. It was bigger than any tree he had ever seen and it never stopped amazing him how something that huge could have just popped out of the ground one day from a tiny little seed and grown into the massive trunk before him. In the side of the trunk there was a little opening. That was the other amazing thing about the tree, it was hollow. A set of stairs wound all the way up to the top of the tree, where Raphael Raven's nest was. Thankfully, there was a heart box inside where Kooper replenished his strength before starting the long climb. That was the end of his good luck, however, because after traveling all that way, fighting off all those enemies, and climbing all those darn stairs, Raphael Raven wasn't even home.

"Caw!" a small raven greeted him.

"Uh, hi, is the Chief here? They told me he would be."

"Mt. Lavalava! Caw!"

"They're at Mt. Lavalava?" Kooper moaned.

"Caw! Back tonight! Caw caw!"

"They'll be back tonight? Can I wait here for them?"

"Caw!" Kooper took that to mean yes and settled into the branches for a long wait.

-PM-

"Booooombeeeetttteeee!"

Bombette ran as fast as she could through the cold, damp hallways of the castle. "Go away, Bruce!"

"I looooovvvveee yoooouuu!"

"Shut up, shut up!"

"My darling pink bob-omb, my fuse burns eternally for you!"

"Ahhhh!"

"I wrote you a poem!"

"I don't want to hear it! Leave me _alone_!"

"Fire flowers are red, super shrooms are blue, I'll let all of Mushroom Kingdom know, I'm bursting for you!" He exploded in a spectacular display of fireworks.

"Aaarrrrgg!"

-PM-

Kooper was close to just giving up and going home when Raphael Raven flew in a little after midnight.

"Kooper? What are you doing here?" Raphael Raven asked.

"Er..." Kooper strained his neck to see around the big raven, but it didn't look like the Chief was with him. "I needed to see the Chief of the Yoshis. They said he was with you."

"Oh, he was. I dropped him off in the village."

"Oh." Kooper looked toward the distant village. There was no way he would be able to make it all the way back there in the dark.

Raphael Raven must have known that as well and offered, "You're welcome to spend the night here. I'll take you to the village first thing in the morning."

"First thing?" Kooper said. He needed to be home tomorrow. The festival was tomorrow.

"Yes, very first thing," he big raven promised. "Birds wake at the crack of dawn, you know."

"Ok then, thank you," Kooper mumbled, half asleep already.

-PM-

"What do you mean 'he left!'" Bombette demanded. Koover backed up a little and held his hands up defensively. "Where did he go?"

"He just went on an errand for Koopa Koot. He said he'd be back tomorrow."

Bombette frowned. "He'd better be back tomorrow," she grumbled. "Thanks Koover, you can go back to bed now."

"You won't blow me up?" he asked nervously.

"No, not tonight," she joked. He didn't look so sure. "Go back to bed Koover, I won't blow you up, I promise."

"Ooookkk..." he said slowly. "I'll see you at the festival tomorrow then."

Bombette nodded and gave him a weak smile. "Yeah, see you then."

She went back to Kooper's house and sighed. Koover had enlisted his bob-omb committee to rebuild the house before the festival tomorrow and they had done a pretty good job. At least it looked presentable on the outside, even if the inside still looked like a war zone. Unable to sleep, Bombette got to work straightening the place up.

"Kooper better come home tomorrow or his house will get blown up _three_ times in a month."

A/N: One more chapter to go! Is anyone reading this? Feedback is always greatly appreciated...love it? hate it? Let me know. And stay tuned for Chapter 3 for the answers to all your questions! Will Kooper make it home before Bombette blows up his house? What is he saving up to buy? What crazy gimick will Bruce try next to get everyone's favorite pink bob-omb to fall in love with him? Seriously, is anyone reading this?

--X


	3. Sunday

Disclaimer: Paper Mario owns all, nothing is mine.

A/N: Here it is, the moment you've all been waiting for! Sorry it took a while, but writer's block and college worked together to delay my final update. Thanks to Teroglahn and Raykura-Kura for reviewing! I tried to divide the scenes this time (and re-divided the first 2 chs!). But on with the story!

Sunday

"Caw caw!"

Kooper rolled onto his other side and shut his eyes tighter. "Five more minutes," he mumbled.

"CAW!"

"Huh? Wha? I'm up!" He staggered to his feet and blinked the sleep from his eyes. "I'm awake!"

"Very good," Raphael Raven said. "It's the first thing in the morning. You did want to leave now?"

"Yeah, thanks," Kooper said. First thing in the morning meant _first thing_ in the morning here. The sun hadn't even hit the horizon yet, it's light was just barely turning the jungle a faint gray color.

"I'll take you to Chief Yoshi now, then."

"Thanks," Kooper mumbled again, looking out at the great expanse of green below him. You could see the whole jungle from the top of that tree. _Goombario would hate this_, Kooper thought with a grin. As brave as the little goomba was, he had a terrible fear of heights. _Bombette would like it though_...

While Raphael Raven flew them over the jungle, Kooper thought of the look on Bombette's face when she looked out over Pleasant Path from the top floor of Bob-omb Castle. Without tearing her gaze away from that view, she had told Kooper that someday she would go back to Lavalava Island and take the time to appreciate the view from the top of that tree, something she hadn't gotten to do in all the excitement during their adventure with Mario. Now, Kooper had a bird's eye view of the jungle and he was taking full advantage of it. Bombette would be so jealous of him when he told her about this.

_The only way to calm her down will be to promise to bring her here one day_, Kooper thought.

When the village was in sight, Raphael Raven let out a deafening caw that Kooper was sure woke the entire village. Sure enough, two minutes later, when they landed, every yoshi was standing there to greet him, despite the early hour. The Fearsome Five swarmed him as soon as his feet touched the ground.

"Kooper!"

"You're back!"

"See, Sushie, one person can survive in the jungle, why can't us five?"

Sushie frowned at her charges and said shortly, "Because Kooper is experienced in fighting off jungle enemies. I'm not going to let you explore unchaperoned, so stop asking." To Kooper she spoke more warmly. "It's good to see you again. I hope you're all staying out of trouble back on the mainland.

Kooper shrugged. "More or less. I actually came to see Chief Yoshi..."

The big, green chief stepped forward. "What can I do for you Kooper? We are all in your debt for rescuing our young last year." He shot a meaningful look at the Fearsome Five, who shifted uncomfortably on their feet.

"Er..." Kooper said. "I'm actually just here to pick up an artifact Koopa Koot said you had." He was too polite to rush them, but Raphael Raven wasn't.

"He's in quite a hurry," the large raven put in.

"Oh, of course. The 'artifact.' Hold on..." The Chief disappeared behind the statue of Raphael Raven and returned with a boxed, wrapped package. "Thank him for me, please."

"Yeah sure," Kooper said absent-mindedly. He was staring at the package; it was impossible to tell what was in it. "Uh, what _is_ the artifact?"

The Chief waved his hand dismissively, as if the matter wasn't important. "Oh, it's nothing. If you get the chance, could you ask Koopa Koot if I could borrow 'the Tape' sometime?"

-PM-

Bombette heard him before she saw him and stopped pacing outside of Kooper's house. "Not now," she muttered wearily and turned to face the unwavering blue bob-omb.

"Bombette, my sweet, my love, my -"

"Not now Bruce," she said through clenched teeth.

"My explosive charge, what's wrong?"

Bombette eyed him suspiciously. He was listening to her? He wasn't just spewing his confessions to her without any regard for her feelings? Where was the annoying blue bob-omb she had come to know and hate? If not for the stupid pet names, she wouldn't have believed it was him at all.

"Sizzling owner of my heart, you seem upset."

Bombette couldn't stop a loud laugh from escaping her. She seemed upset? She was always upset when Bruce was near and he never noticed before. _What's he up to?_ she wondered. "You make me angry," she said.

Bruce shook his head. "Angry, yes, but you're not angry now. You're worried."

Her eyes narrowed on him. "When did you become perceptive?"

"I've seen you in a fiery rage enough times to know the difference." When Bombette cocked her head to the side in confusion, he added simply, "You haven't blown up yet. You worried about Kooper?"

Bombette glared at Bruce. "Why would I be worried about Kooper?"

"Koover said you were."

She frowned. "Koover has a big mouth."

"Well, my darling of destruction, the reason I came by was -"

"To annoy me?" Bombette glowered.

"Never, sweet short fuse! Only to ask if you would go with me to the Star Spirit Festival tonight!" A few minutes later a charred Bruce hobbled back to the toad house and shook his head at Koover.

"It didn't work?" Koover asked.

"Nope."

-PM-

"Thanks Tuna!" Kooper yelled over his shoulder.

"I'm a _whale_!" his ride called after him in vain.

Kooper was almost out of the port district when a scream came from Club 64. He hesitated and turned, wondering if he had the time to stop and help and something collided with him, running toward the night club.

"Kooper!" a squeaky voice said.

He rubbed his lower shell and got to his feet. He saw her light before he saw her. "Watt?"

The bubbly lil sparky nodded excitedly and whispered a thank you to the stars. "I knew Twink wouldn't let me down. Um, ok, you help them and I'll see if the shops are ok!"

"Wait!" Kooper cried before Watt flew off. "What?"

Watt dimmed sheepishly. "Oh...Um...You're not here to help?"

"Help with what?"

"The shy guys got out again."

There was another scream from the club and the pop diva, Chanterelle, appeared in the doorway, followed closely by a green shy guy. Instinctively, Kooper stepped between the singer and her attacker and flared with hot flame as he prepared to use his fire shell. It wasn't necessary though, since the little shy guy got scared just by the flames and ran off to cower by the wall. Watt glowed on different scales of brightness and, out of nowhere, a boo appeared and took the poor guy away.

Kooper paused to stare at the place where the boo disappeared and then asked, "Was that Franky?"

Watt grinned a thousand-watt smile. "He's in town for the Star Spirit Festival, mostly to spook Fice T.. Poor guy."

"They're always trying to scare that poor guard," Kooper agreed sympathetically.

Chantrelle brought them back to the crisis at hand, saying more to herself than to anyone around her, "Oh, my voice! Do re mi fa...Oh all that shouting...I'll never be able to sing at the festival now," she moaned.

Kooper groaned. The festival. He had to be back for the festival, but he couldn't leave Watt to deal with the shy guys all on her own. He waged an internal battle and Watt, to her credit, saw this and didn't interrupt him until Harry, the owner of Harry's Shop, shouted after a trio of shy guys stealing his items.

"Kooper?" Watt asked hesitantly.

He looked from his old teammate and friend to the lowering sun. He might have two hours before sunset, when the stars would come out and the festival would start. Tucking Koopa Koot's package securely in his shell, Kooper nodded to Watt. She beamed and the two separated and set to work just like they used to.

Kooper caught up with the Harry's Shop thieves at the train station, trying to kick the conductor off the train. Kooper hit one with a shell toss and the other two turned on him. As soon as they were off the tracks the conductor called hurriedly, "All aboard! Next stop, Mt. Rugged!" and pulled out before the shy guys could hijack his train.

That left Kooper alone to fight off three shy guys. He'd been in worse fights. He'd fought three fuzzies at a time just yesterday and fuzzies were better adversaries than shy guys ever were. For one thing, shy guys were too shy. If you scared them bad enough, they'd usually run off. Kooper would, of course, have to pick a fight with the three shy guys who didn't flee at the sight of his flame shell. So he wasted precious daylight defeating them all and lugging their stolen goods back to Harry's Shop. At twenty minutes to sunset, there were still a few loose shy guys around Toad Town giving them some trouble.

Noticing his frequent uneasy glances at the horizon, Watt said, "Hey Kooper, do you, um, need to go soon?"

He snapped his attention back to her and Franky and said unconvincingly, "No, I can stay and help."

"Kooper, go home, we can round up the rest of these guys," Franky said.

"But -"

"GO!" Franky wailed, making the customary scary-boo face.

"Go on, it's alright," Watt encouraged.

"Okay," Kooper said hesitantly.

He walked quickly enough, though, back to the Toad Town Tunnels and just before he dropped into the sewers he heard Watt call after him, "Say hi to Bombette for me!"

-PM-

"Five minutes until sunset!" Koover shouted over the excited voices of the Koopa Village inhabitants. "Five minutes! ...Where's Bobby?"

"Right here," a green bob-omb said, pushing to the front of the crowd.

"Well?" Koover asked nervously.

Bobby shook his head. "He's not back yet."

"Crap," Koover muttered. "Where's Bombette?" Bobby shrugged. "You don't know?" Koover was panicking now. He wanted things to be perfect, to go off smoothly. That didn't include and angry pink bob-omb exploding in the middle of town and blowing bits and pieces of his friend's house all over the festival-goers.

"She's not at his house anymore," Bobby said optimistically. "Maybe she went back to the castle."

Someone in the back of the crowd said, "Actually, I saw Bruce head that toward Kooper's house a few minutes..."

Right on cue Bruce's voice rang out clearly through the town. "But my combustible sweetheart, I -"

KABOOM!

Koover groaned, sure that some expensive property damage had been caused this time. A couple of Bruce's friends went to survey the damage and collect their love-struck buddy. Four minutes to sunset.

"Someone get Mort T., Bruce is gonna need serious healing this time. He's gotten himself killed this time, I'm sure of it," the koopas and bob-ombs whispered while they waited for the others to return.

They came back just before Koover had a nervous breakdown, Bruce supported between them, miraculously still alive and babbling about "his lovely girl." Three minutes to sunset.

-PM-

Bombette glowered at Kooper's house. He was lucky it was still standing, even if he _did_ still have three minutes to get home. She could have blown it up along with Bruce, but she moved across the street to the empty lot to lose her cool. A small crater that was already being filled in by some of Koover's workers was all that was left of her rage, but she was building more with every passing second that Kooper didn't climb out of that pipe.

"Two mintues!" she heard Koover yell over the excited chatter of the crowd. Koopas, bob-ombs, and a few tourists from Toad Town found good spots on the ground to sit and gaze up at the sky for the First Annual Star Spirit Festival.

If she had been less agitated, Bombette might have noticed Koopa Koot standing in his doorway with a package clutched safely in his wrinkled old hands, but as it was, her gaze skipped right over the old man on its trek to and from the pipe and Kooper's house. She might have heard Koover shout a greeting over the crowd or hear a dozen other people wish someone luck, but she was oblivious to everything but the time. One minute and counting.

A tap on her shoulder made her spin around and she just barely contained a surprised explosion. There was Kooper, with his hands behind his back and a grin on his face.

"Glad to see you didn't blow up my house yet."

A relieved grin spread over her face too. "Twenty more seconds and I would have. You're cutting it kind of close."

"Well I had to stop and get this." He pulled a fire flower from behind his back and held it out for her. Bombette blinked in confusion.

"Ten, nine, eight..." the crowd counted down.

"Happy Star Spirit Day, Bombette."

"...six, five..."

Kooper kissed her.

"...THREE, TWO..."

When Bombette pulled away, the fire flower was in her hand and Kooper was looking at her nervously. She stared at the flower and at him and smiled, manuvering her free hand into one of his. They turned their faces to the sky just as the crowd shouted, "ONE!" The stars twinkled to life like never before, accompanied by a few dozen bob-ombs all exploding in an incredible display of fireworks.

The End


End file.
